👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
Your brain on... creativity 🍭
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I recently joined a pottery class, as a way to unwind, be creative, meet new people, and learn a fun new skill. 🏺 2 weeks & 1 clay-splattered shirt later… and I want to share some (neurodivergent) observations. *** My art teacher uses a lot of verbal instructions – put your hand there, put your other hand here, position your body this way. The challenge? My brain struggles to process verbal instructions. I have a much easier time with slow, experiential, and visual learning. Whether your brain is similar or different from mine, all ways of learning are valid. In my pottery class, I learn much more effectively when my teacher guides my hand at the wheel, or visually demonstrates the action she’s describing. Outside of class, I watch tutorial videos so I can pause & rewind to dissect a specific step. 🧠 That’s how my brain works. That’s my processing style. Understanding this allows me to embrace my creative process, rather than criticize myself for “not learning fast enough” or “being bad at art.” (For the record, I don’t believe anyone is bad at art. As human beings, we are inherently creative, even if we don’t realize it.) Whether the thing you’re working on is pottery, writing your novel, gardening, learning to cook, or managing your finances… I want you to be gentle with yourself & to accommodate your processing style. If you find yourself struggling, and then judging yourself for struggling… consider asking these questions instead: 🌀 What would make this process more accessible for me? 🌀 What is 1 shift that would make this 10% easier? 🌀 What do MY brain & nervous system need in order to engage in this process? Notice what comes up for you, and follow your intuition. *** What I appreciate about my pottery class is not only that I get a cool new mug out of this — but also that I am gathering in community with people who value art. I believe that art is medicine, and that creativity is power. Living through these times requires our creativity — to imagine a better world, and to nurture the skills & gifts in each of us that make such a world possible. Art gives us hope, and hope expands our capacity. What does creativity look like for you today? ☀️ With so much care, P.S. If you're overwhelmed & burnt out, but too busy for weekly therapy, I am here to support you. I offer Nervous System Healing Intensives — three 90-minute sessions, using brain-body modalities (Brainspotting, IFS, EMDR) that go deeper than talk therapy & help you feel better, sooner.
Intensives are a type of short-term, accelerated therapy — for folks who prefer a hyper-focused approach to healing; who need longer than 50-min sessions to warm up & process deeply. Our three 90-minute sessions are scheduled across 1-2 weeks. 👉🏽 If you want to get an Intensive on the books, click here to book an intro call. P.P.S. Know someone who needs to hear this? Forward it along. New readers can subscribe HERE. I help highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults heal their nervous systems & connect with their authentic selves. 💗 Need a nervous system reset? —> Join me for a Calm Place meditation.
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Liz's Neurodivergent Letters
👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
If someone were to ask you, “how are you, really?”… what would you honest answer be right now? In times like these, when the world & current events seem to move faster than the human nervous system was designed to process, I feel grateful to know my “parts.” So, my honest response to “how are you, really?” would not be a short answer — it’d be an answer that acknowledges all of my parts. We all have parts, working inside of our nervous systems, helping us to navigate life in whatever way...
How does your brain like to process information? By reading words on a page? Skimming a screen? Talking it out in a live conversation? Watching videos? Looking at images? 👀 Listening to podcasts? While moving your body, or while sitting still? Our brains process information in so many different ways — visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, verbally, non-verbally, sub-consciously, consciously… and more. 🎧 If you happen to be an auditory processor, you might enjoy this new resource that I’ve...
As highly sensitive & neurodivergent people, I think a lot of us are used to navigating complexities and holding dualities. For example: the complexity of masking to stay safe and unmasking to conserve energy, while learning who you are underneath the masks. The duality of experiencing deep joy and deep grief, sometimes within the same hour. Or the same breath. And the whiplash of shifting between these two states. The paradox of parts of you wanting connection, and parts of you wanting to be...